Sergio Garcia and Callum Shinkwin will battle it out on the final day after earning a two shot lead at the KLM Open.
The 15 time European Tour winner and the 26-year-old Englishman were together in the penultimate group, but the pair carded only one bogey between them as they surged to the top of the leaderboard at 15 under par.
The Spaniard was blemish free as he carded a six under 66, while Shinkwin matched the European Ryder Cup star’s score with seven birdies and one dropped shot at The International.
The duo will be paired together once again for the final round, starting two shots ahead of Danish rising star Nicolai Højgaard, who is making just third European Tour start in Amsterdam.
The 18-year-old carded six birdies and a bogey to sit alone in third at 13 under, one shot ahead of Englishman James Morrison.
Matt Wallace set the clubhouse target with a stunning course record of 63 courtesy of ten birdies and one bogey to shoot up to 11 under and was later joined by fellow Englishmen Steven Brown and Matthew Southgate.
Swede Joakim Lagegren was in eighth at ten under, while 2016 Ryder Cup star Thomas Pieters, Dane Jeff Winther, South African George Coetzee, Chile’s Hugo Leon, Spaniard Eduardo De La Riva and home favourite Wil Besseling were one shot further back.
Player Quotes
Sergio Garcia: “I’m really pleased. It helps when you are swinging nicely, but it’s not easy. It is never easy. Sometimes we make it look like that but it was tricky, there were a couple of holes where the wind screwed me a little bit and hit two good shots at nine and ten and didn’t get anything out of it. I made a great up and down at ten to keep my run going and then another good finish with a birdie at 17th and 18th.
“Obviously if you are striking the ball well and hit a lot of greens and you are rolling the ball nicely, even if you don’t make them you still feel good because you are hitting good putts. I hit many of those today, like on 13 and couple others like 15 for example which looked like they were going to go in and just missed. So that’s obviously important, it keeps your momentum going and I was able to do that today.
“I putt a lot. Not only me but I think everyone knows how important putting is and when you are a good ball-striker, it always feels like you are missing more than the rest because you have a lot more birdie putts but they are from a further distance so it is easier to miss them. I realise that and stay patient and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
Callum Shinkwin: “I’ve been there a few times this year already, been there in the past as well but haven’t quite finished it off but hopefully what I do today will help me in the long run.
“I was matching Sergio shot for shot. As much as everyone says don’t watch your playing partner, you have to watch your playing partner no matter who it is, and Sergio was hitting his straight and was hitting close. If I matched him, I was doing well.
“I have got to maintain my emotions inside. If I hit a poor shot, don’t let it affect me and just walk on and play the next one. I beat myself too much, especially not making birdies early on. I have to just take it one shot at a time and hope it all kicks in.”
Matt Wallace: “Hopefully right in there. The first day was windy and I didn’t play very well at all, been working on a few things on my swing so I finished with three over which wasn’t very satisfying and didn’t putt very well. Did some work on the putting green afterwards, straightened up my feet line really as I was a bit too far open, and then started holing some putts yesterday, which was nice.
“I started playing a little bit better and went out there this morning with no wind and hit a great tee shot at the first and thought ‘Oh okay, that’s a bit different’ and stuck with my swing thoughts, my feels and gave myself a lot of chances and rolled them in today. Could have been better but it was one of those days where every single hole I felt I could have birdied.
“I’ve had it a couple of times, if I’m being brutally honest there is still a lot of room for improvement, but this game is all about scoring. I don’t care how I get it done, I just want to shoot low so I will do a bit more work this afternoon, but it is real good progress, real good time to start playing well especially with next week.
Round three scores
201 C Shinkwin (Eng) 66 69 66, S Garcia (Esp) 68 67 66,
203 N Højgaard (Den) 67 69 67,
204 J Morrison (Eng) 68 67 69,
205 M Wallace (Eng) 75 67 63, M Southgate (Eng) 67 68 70, S Brown (Eng) 69 68 68,
206 J Lagergren (Swe) 71 66 69,
207 G Coetzee (RSA) 71 69 67, E De La Riva (Esp) 69 68 70, W Besseling (Ned) 72 66 69, J Winther (Den) 71 69 67, H Leon (Chi) 70 69 68, T Pieters (Bel) 71 66 70,
208 M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 72 69 67, J Luiten (Ned) 69 69 70, R Karlberg (Swe) 70 68 70, S Crocker (USA) 70 72 66, A Rozner (Fra) 70 67 71, R Caron (Ned) 68 69 71, S Sharma (Ind) 70 68 70, A Chesters (Eng) 71 68 69,
209 B Dredge (Wal) 72 65 72, E Kofstad (Nor) 72 70 67, S Jamieson (Sco) 68 65 76, G Moynihan (Irl) 70 71 68, A Romero (Arg) 70 69 70, R Langasque (Fra) 68 71 70, K Kitayama (USA) 69 70 70,
210 H Tanihara (Jpn) 69 71 70, J Wang (Kor) 72 68 70, P Harrington (Irl) 71 71 68, S Horsfield (Eng) 67 69 74, E Molinari (Ita) 70 71 69, L Johnston (Sco) 70 68 72, M Kieffer (Ger) 69 68 73, Y Miyazato (Jpn) 74 65 71, E Walker (Sco) 72 69 69, H Endycott (Aus) 75 67 68, J Donaldson (Wal) 70 70 70,
211 T Detry (Bel) 71 70 70, J McLeod (Aus) 70 68 73, P Reed (USA) 72 69 70, C Paisley (Eng) 67 73 71, P Figueiredo (Por) 70 70 71, M Orrin (Eng) 68 69 74, M Warren (Sco) 67 74 70,
212 C Wood (Eng) 72 70 70, L Slattery (Eng) 74 67 71, S Kjeldsen (Den) 70 70 72, G Green (Mas) 67 73 72, B Stone (RSA) 70 72 70,
213 T Merritt (USA) 73 65 75, D Gavins (Eng) 70 71 72, R Saxton (Ned) 69 73 71, H Porteous (RSA) 68 72 73, P Dunne (Irl) 71 69 73, K Kouwenaar (am) (Ned) 68 70 75,
214 N Lemke (Swe) 73 69 72, N McCarthy (Eng) 74 68 72, J Veerman (USA) 69 73 72, A Wu (Chn) 69 72 73, R Ramsay (Sco) 73 69 72,
215 C Blomstrand (Swe) 74 67 74, M Korhonen (Fin) 70 69 76, P Langfors (Swe) 67 73 75, D Law (Sco) 72 70 73, T Immelman (RSA) 73 69 73,
216 S Soderberg (Swe) 75 67 74, N Bertasio (Ita) 71 68 77,
217 A Karlsson (Swe) 70 69 78, G Bhullar (Ind) 72 69 76, S Manley (Wal) 73 69 75,
218 S Maurits (Ned) 71 71 76,
143 A Connelly (Can) 76 67 0, A Bland (Aus) 72 71 0, D Drysdale (Sco) 73 70 0, L De Jager (RSA) 71 72 0, P Oriol (Esp) 73 70 0, S Chawrasia (Ind) 74 69 0, D Papadatos (Aus) 72 71 0, D Lawson (Aus) 71 72 0, M Kaymer (Ger) 77 66 0, R Gouveia (Por) 72 71 0, N Colsaerts (Bel) 70 73 0,
144 A Cañizares (Esp) 78 66 0, T Murray (Eng) 73 71 0, V Perez (Fra) 70 74 0, C Sordet (Fra) 75 69 0, L Gagli (Ita) 71 73 0, J Van Zyl (RSA) 76 68 0, M Reynolds (Ned) 75 69 0, R Wattel (Fra) 73 71 0, M Campbell (Nzl) 75 69 0, J Singh Brar (Eng) 71 73 0, Z Lombard (RSA) 75 69 0, N Cullen (Aus) 73 71 0, J Girrbach (Sui) 74 70 0, B Ritthammer (Ger) 73 71 0, K Reitan (Nor) 72 72 0, K Johannessen (Nor) 75 69 0, S Gregory (Eng) 71 73 0, B Reuter (am) (Ned) 74 70 0,
145 M Pavon (Fra) 72 73 0, L Westwood (Eng) 70 75 0, M Penge (Eng) 70 75 0, M Siem (Ger) 71 74 0, G Fdez-Castaño (Esp) 73 72 0, M Schmitt (Ger) 76 69 0, B Henson (USA) 75 70 0, B Geurts (am) (Ned) 73 72 0,
146 J McDonald (Sco) 73 73 0, M Toorop (Ned) 74 72 0, F Zanotti (Par) 74 72 0, J Dantorp (Swe) 74 72 0, L Jensen (Den) 72 74 0, A Saddier (Fra) 73 73 0, D Hillier (Nzl) 78 68 0, M Lafeber (Ned) 72 74 0,
147 B Rumford (Aus) 75 72 0, R Jacquelin (Fra) 75 72 0, D Borda (Esp) 79 68 0, S Valimaki (Fin) 76 71 0, B Evans (Eng) 73 74 0, R Van West (Ned) 74 73 0, O Fisher (Eng) 75 72 0, M Nixon (Eng) 73 74 0, W Nienaber (RSA) 71 76 0, I Cantero Gutierrez (Esp) 72 75 0, K Van Der Weele (am) (Ned) 71 76 0,
148 M Hoey (Nir) 75 73 0, D Howell (Eng) 77 71 0, G Forrest (Sco) 75 73 0, S Hend (Aus) 75 73 0, J Olazábal (Esp) 76 72 0,
150 R Karlsson (Swe) 78 72 0,
151 J Van Der Vaart (Ned) 78 73 0, D Stewart (Sco) 75 76 0, J Choi (Kor) 79 72 0,
152 D Boshart (Ned) 77 75 0, D Horsey (Eng) 77 75 0, M Albertus (Ned) 80 72 0, J Campillo (Esp) 79 73 0, K Koivu (Fin) 77 75 0, D Antonisse (am) (Ned) 79 73 0,
153 M Manassero (Ita) 78 75 0, J Catlin (USA) 78 75 0,
154 J Kunzenbacher (Ger) 79 75 0, H Park (Kor) 75 79 0, S Kim (USA) 78 76 0,
155 L Keunen (Ned) 77 78 0,
158 J Ballesteros (Esp) 78 80 0,
161 E Lopez-Chacarra (am) (Esp) 85 76 0,
** D Porsius (Ned) 84 WD 0, D Cooke (USA) DQ 0 0, F Bergamaschi (Ita) RT 0 0,
